Peaceful Start

There is something very satisfying about being the first up, grabbing a coffee and sitting by the pool while reading the news. Kim came out to join me after about half an hour, but she too sat down for a quiet read. With my catch-up complete, I dropped into the pool and swam some lengths before towelling off and grabbing a second coffee.

Over the next 90 minutes, everyone else emerged. I was surprised to see Diane as she had a dreadful night’s sleep, but she was up and about. Breakfast was a casual affair. Most helped themselves, but I did scrambled eggs and bacon for Jon, bacon for Darren, and had fried eggs and bacon myself. The morning saw a local transformer blow meaning we had a power cut for much of the morning.

Ellie spent much of the morning in the pool with various adults to accompany her. The rest sat chatting, reading or listening to music. Kim had her iPad with her - this was my old iPad. The Logitech keyboard wouldn’t pair with it, so I spent about 45 minutes trying to sort it out. Eventually, it burst into life and seems to be fine now. (I seem to remember having a similar problem on Diane’s old iPad once - and it took a while to fix also).

The local maintenance man turned up at lunchtime. The toilet seat in our en suite was all lopsided, so he fixed that, and then put up a hook for us to hang towels. Soon after he left the power came back on… not that we had missed it during the morning.

After lunch, Kim and Jon headed off on the motorbike. The aim was to have a look around and stop for something to eat. At the same time, Zoe, Ellie, Darren, and Millie took a taxi down to the town to get some shopping. Diane took the opportunity to go back to bed for a nap. I stayed on the terrace in a shaded spot and had Kindle time until everyone returned. When everyone returned there was a huge selection of meats and salmon for the BBQ... and the odd bottle of wine and can of beer.

Ellie got a bit overtired and had a grizzly half-hour late afternoon. She settled and went into the air-conditioned lounge for some quiet time on her iPad. I took the opportunity to have another swim.

A BBQ is planned for this evening.